Renewal Wheat Ridge, Wazee Partners, and Weston Team to Build Apartment Community

Public-Private Partnership Spurs Redevelopment in Wheat Ridge

WHEAT RIDGE – January 25, 2012 – A new 88-unit affordable housing community is coming to Wheat Ridge as early as September 2012. Weston Solutions, Inc. (WESTON®), a leading environmental, redevelopment, and construction firm, is working with Denver-based Wazee Partners to develop the community, which will be located at the Wheat Ridge Town Center site at 44th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard.

The age-restricted apartment community, which will include an exercise facility, library, coffee/bistro room, and community room, as well as an outdoor courtyard and garden area, will be located on approximately 2.25 acres of an 8-acre redevelopment site that was purchased by Renewal Wheat Ridge, the Urban Renewal Authority for the City of Wheat Ridge, in spring 2008. The additional acreage is available for sale.

WESTON has worked closely with both the City of Wheat Ridge and Renewal Wheat Ridge since 2009 to provide surveying, conceptual planning services (including subdivision, streets, infrastructure, landscaping, and utility plans), and economic feasibility studies to tee up the site for redevelopment. The project’s location is a former brownfields site, and the WESTON team addressed that challenge as well. In spring 2011, WESTON provided remediation, green deconstruction, and demolition services to remove the original older buildings and a parking lot, which were plagued with asbestos and contamination from underground storage tanks. WESTON is proceeding with the construction of utilities, new public roads and sidewalks, landscaping, and lighting, as well as a detention basin to reduce stormwater runoff and improve water quality.

John Reinsma, WESTON Development Manager, commented, “This public-private partnership is helping to revitalize the City of Wheat Ridge, and we’re excited to be a part of the redevelopment. In the current economy, you need to partner with like-minded organizations that are willing to take on complex projects and find innovative ways to make them work for the people in your community. That’s what we’ve found with the City of Wheat Ridge, Renewal Wheat Ridge, and Wazee Partners and that’s what they’ve found in us. You need to be willing to share the risks and the rewards. And when you do, great things happen.”

The property is located in the heart of the Wheat Ridge Town Center site and for years has been a blighted area with older structures and nonconforming uses. In 2010 the city placed a mixed-use overlay zoning designation on the property and began planning for its development. “While we knew we were taking a risk purchasing and consolidating the three properties,” says Rick Adams, Chairperson for Renewal Wheat Ridge, “the consequence of doing nothing would be many more years of vacant land and underdeveloped properties in the heart of our city. Our strong feeling is this project will kick-start development along Wadsworth Boulevard and 44th Avenue and hopefully continues throughout the corridor. This project precisely fits the Renewal Wheat Ridge mission to make the city a better place to live and work. While the project has faced many challenges for our board, we’ve been extremely pleased with the professionalism and ability of WESTON to bring us the project we’re marketing today. We look forward to the day when the entire site is completed with the apartments and other retail and office uses.”

Tyler Downs, Principal of Wazee Partners, LLC, stated, “This exciting urban redevelopment project would not have been possible without Renewal Wheat Ridge, the City of Wheat Ridge, and Weston Solutions. Renewal Wheat Ridge in particular played an instrumental role in jump-starting the ambitious redevelopment of this formerly blighted, environmentally contaminated property. Wazee Partners is proud to provide the residential housing component of this mixed-use urban development project. The Wheat Ridge Town Center Apartments will be a high-quality, amenity-rich, age-restricted apartment community. We think this will be a very nice addition to the City of Wheat Ridge.”

Wazee Partners is a developer, owner, and operator of apartment communities throughout the mountain west. Information on the Wheat Ridge Town Center Apartment Community can be found at www.wheatridgeseniorliving.com.

Weston Solutions, Inc. (WESTON®) is a global leader in environmental solutions, sustainable development, design/build construction, green buildings, and clean energy. Dedicated to making a difference in the world, the company’s 1,800 people reach out from 60 offices around the globe to build strong stakeholder relationships and provide solutions that work. WESTON has been responding to its clients’ toughest problems for more than 50 years.

For more information about WESTON or subcontracting opportunities, visit www.westonsolutions.com. To inquire about lease space, contact John Reinsma at John.Reinsma@westonsolutions.com . For information about Urban Renewal and the City of Wheat Ridge, contact Steve Art at sart@ci.wheatridge.co.us or visit www.ci.wheatridge.co.us.